Our Community Values Count!

We value open space, conservation, and habitat protection!Our Marina beaches are where the Cal-Am Slant Well Project will be built (on the current Cemex Sandmining operation that will be shut down and designated for open space and conservation in perpetuity after restoration of the habitat).

Which reflects values for Open Space? Pristine beaches or Industrial uses?

And after two years of a test slant well on our shores from 2015-2016, our precious Western Snowy Plover population is on a downward trend and yet there is no accountability for Cal-Am to prove their slant well was NOT a contributor!

​What’s going on and who is responsible for investigating? Does Cal-Am merely state in a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) that impacts are “possible” but have no responsibility for actual outcomes of any negative impacts as they become available?

We have the right to be valued as equals with the Peninsula!

Q: What efforts has Cal-Am made to address the need for the project with the community?

A: (Cal-Am’s response at a CA Public Utilities Commission evidentiary hearing): “…In addition to the required application notifications, Public Participation Hearings and public meetings and notifications related to the project EIR, Cal-Am has engaged in additional outreach activities to keep its customers (none of whom are in Marina) informed of the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project, its progress and current status.

It includes frequently asked questions, multi-media features, important documents including test well data, general descriptive information on the project including budget and schedule, and a contact page”

BUT no mention of what they did in Marina, the place where they intend to take massive amounts of OUR groundwater, for free, without our approval, without proper public involvement! And by the way, in two years and a half years from the last Draft Environmental Impact presentation to City Council, Cal-Am has not had one public forum in Marina!

We value science to make good decisions!Would you trust a doctor who said you did not have cancer when all he did was take 8 random biopsies in different body locations without doing an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)?

​This is the difference between Cal-Am’s “science” that claims “no harm” to Marina’s water basins using 8 random vertical wells for data versus Dr. Rosemary Knight of Stanford’s AEM (airborne Electro-magnetic imaging technique) that clearly shows, in an expansive imaging that goes to depths of 1,000 feet, that Cal-Am will be drawing fresh water from our basin, NOT unusable water as Cal-Am claims!

Environmental Justice is Everyone's Right!The social and economic injustice is clear. In search of a new water supply beyond its area of service, Cal Am has opted to take advantage of a poorer community that it perceives as financially weak, politically unsupported, and unable to rigorously defend its groundwater resources. We will not receive an equitable distribution of environmental risks and benefits if this project is approved.

2014-2015 Demographics of Marina and other Monterey Peninsula CitiesPlease note the growth rates in the peninsula cities with the highest property values and household incomes. Those communities are in population decline, yet the MPWSP DEIR has highly inflated numbers for future growth to justify the take of our water. Marina and Ord Lands growth and water needs are completely absent in the project description.

Source datausa.io 2015

The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as follows:

Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. EPA has this goal for all communities and persons across this Nation [sic]. It will be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.13